Hi. I have a pair of interconnects with male RCA connectors on both ends. I suspect they may be a set of digital cables, but I'm not sure and they are not labelled as such. There is a 'signal direction' arrow on each cable, and a molded lump at the downstream end of each one.

Is there an electrical test I can perform, such as checking for resistance; or some other characteristic that would tell me whether they are 'digital' cables or plain audio interconnects?Thanks!

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If the degradation is gross, this is an OK test. If the degradation is subtle then it may take quite a while to ascertain that the sound quality has diminished. Using appropriate instruments can a better use of one's time, assuming that they are available when it comes to quickly ruling out unsuitable gear.

Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar

The one type i know of which is a true 75 ohm RCA has a mounting technique which allows the barrel of the RCA to spin a bit. AudioQuest made those first.. And the type of connector is getting a little more common. Near zero true 75 ohm RCA in other fixed case types. Though the cable may have been sold as 'digital' anyway. It is certainly Ok to use as a regular set of interconnects. The fact they are a pair, is more towards being a regular interconnect pair anyway.

Elizabeth, I think you are right. There is no reason for them to be sold as a pair, since S/PDIF cables handle both channels with a single cable and are usually sold singly. Since mine were molded together as a pair, they must be standard interconnects.

Sure, just hook it to your TDR and find the termination that minimizes the return. If you don't have a TDR you can fake it with a scope and function generator.

Since you are trying to see if it's 75 ohms maybe you could T it along with a source to the video input of your TV and see if a 75 ohm termination minimizes the ghost.

Or you could bag measuring it and just try it in the audio application and see how she sounds. Being lazy that would be my first shot, but yes, characteristic impedance is a measurable electrical characteristic but how you do it depends on what test equipment you have available.